A worker oils a pump during a hydraulic fracturing operation. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

(Newser)
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A massive leak of fracking fluid poured into the streets of Arlington, Texas, two months ago and forced the evacuation of a hundred homes. Now city officials have taken Vantage Energy to task for its "unacceptable" handling of the 43,000-gallon spill, WFAA reports. During a city council meeting yesterday, it emerged that Vantage had taken nearly two hours to call 911 despite the risk of a gas leak. "This is unacceptable behavior," says an Arlington city council member. According to Fire Chief Don Crowson, the two-hour delay was no joke: "We’re not kidding around about the 911 issue," he tells the Star-Telegram during a break in city council. "It could have ended in a bad outcome. Two hours’ advance notice could have helped a lot."

Still, officials say the environmental damage was not extensive and Vantage has been cooperative. So what happened, exactly? According to the city's report, a Vantage well site sprung a leak on April 11, which allowed fracking water and chemicals to boil up into Arlington's streets, storm sewers, and streams. Because the fracking fluid had been fracturing shale and freeing gas under high pressure, natural gas could have leaked at any time. Now WFAA says a 1,500-gallon spill occurred at the same location a month before, and NBC-Dallas/Fort Worth reports that the site is close to reopening. "I just assumed this was a residential area and it would be free from industrial hazardous operations," says a resident after hearing about the earlier spill. "Now we see it's not."

Root cause of damage to planet is too many friggin' people being born when you can only justify reproducing yourself ONCE & ONLY once or 2kids per family, not this insane 3x,4x,5x,6x,7x,8x,9x,10x,11x,12x,13x,14x,15x,16x,17x,18x,19x and counting Like POPE says, "We shouldn't breed like Rabbits" and he's got a degree in chemistry The sincle most EVIL thing U can do in life is to OVER-BREED because high BirthRates inevitably lead to high DeathRates from whatever result> Fracking is trying to supply energy, oil & gas to excessive population> All problems solved if overbreeding stops

johnthropic

Jun 20, 2015 10:43 PM CDT

Thank you, then VP dick chenney, for passing the law that said drilling co. did not have to disclose any of the over 500 chemicals used, do to proprietary rights.